Mischief Managed!
by Arabella Figgy
Summary: My take on MWPP! In Progress!


Mischief Managed!

A/N: Conunctio is coming! I promise! Have faith. Also, Nike in this story refers to the Greek goddess of Victory, not the highly successful clothing line. Arabella wouldn't have an Owl named after shoes, for crying out loud…

One – A New Beginning

The scarlet engine stood, imposing and impressive in front of the tall, blond girl, a mixture of apprehension and determination on her face. She seemed to be sizing up the train, almost daring it with her eyes to attack first, or some such thing. 

"Arabella, Hun, I could use a hand over here!" 

The voice of her father snapped her out of her reprieve, and Arabella Figg, grinning strode over to help her father get her trunk into one of the rear compartments.

"Now honey, if you forgot anything, anything at all, send me an Owl. And when you get there, send me an Owl to let me know what House you'll be in. Then later…"

"I know, mum. Owl you later in the week to let you know I'm doing. I think ol' Nike here is going to get one bloody good workout."

"Watch you're language!" the prematurely gray Artemis Figg said to her eleven-year old daughter. Arabella smirked. Her mom, though she loved her dearly had to look up to her just about everyday since the end of grammar school. However, her height did not serve to her advantage at school, as she had so painfully learned at Jacobson School in Northumberland. She couldn't remember a day at school in which she either didn't get taunted from the first bell to the last or sent home after clocking someone after the pressure got to great. But hopefully, everything would change. 

After all, she was a witch.

"Sirius Black, you get over here right now!"

"Uh, yes, coming mum! I'm just over here, uh, looking into the expedition of Miss Sinistra's bags here!"

Mrs. Constance Black shot a look to her husband. "Our bet still stands? One week before we have Dumbledore begging to give him back?"

Mr. Harold Black shrugged. "He may get lost…"

Sirius Black, a strongly built boy for his age, was suddenly distracted from the charms of Jane Neona Sinistra by the arrival of a short, skinny boy with a shock of unruly black hair.

"JAMES POTTER!"

"SIRIUS BLACK!"

"I want out of the bet," Harold Black said, turning back to his wife.

"Oh no you don't. I want my breakfast in bed for two months, thank you."

"I didn't know you were coming to Hogwarts!"

"I didn't know you were!"

"Well, mum and dad were all hush, hush, no one short of MI-6 must know, blah blah blah…"

"Must be something they teach them all at 'mum and dad school'…"

James and Sirius had lived on the same street in a small suburb of Kent since before either one of them could to remember. James's parents had died sometime ago, leaving James with his aunt as well as a considerable fortune to his name. James had known virtually his whole life that he was a wizard, as his mother, father and aunt all were. Sirius, on the other hand was what was known as a Muggle-born. Neither one of his parents had any magical ability, and was pretty surprised to find out that their son did.

Constance black was a practical woman, and rather than allowing her only son to run off to some magical school in Scotland, she had arranged a meeting for her and Harold with none other than Albus Dumbledore, headmaster of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry himself. Both of them had left the meeting, which took place in Diagon Alley while Sirius shopped for his school supplies, completely confident in Sirius's well being at Hogwarts.

What Constance and Harold Black didn't know was that their son, along with a handful of other students that Hogwarts had yet to meet, would be instrumental to the preservation of not only the magical world, but the Muggle as well. But that's getting ahead of the story…

Lily Evans, on the other hand, looked as if she had swallowed several toads whole. Her mother and father felt as out of place as their daughter, and after a short, tearful goodbye, left their daughter in her compartment in the middle of the Hogwarts Express. 

Lily fought back her tears as the door to her compartment slid open, and in walked Arabella followed by a short, tired looking boy with sandy hair.

"Hey! I'm Arabella. Hope you don't mind, but some stupid Slytherin Sixth Years just kicked Remus and me here out of our compartment! The jerks…" she muttered in addition. "Can we crash here?"

"Yes, of course," Lily said, trying her best to help the two drag their trunks into the compartment. She wasn't really surprised to see the girl named Arabella drag her trunk in with very little effort, but the smaller boy named Remus lifted his with ease, despite the fact that he looked as if he hadn't had a good meal in days.

"I'm Lily, by the way," she began timidly. All her life, she hadn't been able to make friends very easily, due in part to her overwhelming shyness but mainly because her sister Petunia went out of her way to make sure that everyone viewed her sister in the same light she did; a horrible little inconvenience that was to be ignored at all times.

For the first time, however Petunia was far away and Lily was determined to make friends. The stubborn streak that ran a mile wide in her was the only thing that made her even open her mouth. Fortunately, Arabella was a very easy person to talk to.

"Lily! Great name! I hate mine. Sounds like some Restoration-era concubine. This is Remus; did I mention that?"

"Hi Lily," he said, equaling Lily in shyness. He took her hand, shook it lightly and sat apart from the two girls.

"So Lily! Which house do you think you'll be in?" Lily had no idea what Arabella was talking about, and her face must have shown it.

"Oh man, you must be a Muggle-born! Yay! That means I get to explain it all!"

"Arabella, please try to be slightly unbiased," Remus said, crossing his arms and looking highly amused. Arabella stuck her tongue out at him and turned back to Lily.

"Ok, there's four houses; Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw and, ug, Slytherin." Arabella made a face. "You're way too nice to end up in that place, so don't worry about it. Hufflepuff is known as really nice, loyal types, so that might be good, but Gryffindors are brave. Really brave. Everyone in my family from like Great-great-great grandfathers back has been one, so it'd just be weird to be anything else." Here she shrugged. "But Ravenclaw is cool, because those are the smartest."

"Way to paint the school in broad strokes, Figg. You didn't explain about Slytherins, or say anything remotely intelligent…"

"You're so asking for it, Lupin," Arabella said, advancing on him with a big grin on her face.

"Bring it on, Figg!" The two began to fight, albeit a rather silly one punctuated by giggles and insults. Lily herself was overcome by a fit of giggles herself, and after Arabella called uncle while in a headlock, Lily voiced a question on her mind.

"Where did you two meet? It certainly couldn't have been on the train."

"Oh, heavens no! Remus and I went to the same grammar school."

"She's always had a thing for me."

"No way! You are so full of it!" The fight started anew, and Lily shook with giggles as the train rumbled towards through the countryside.

"Sirius, you're a damn first year. I don't think that it should be your number one priority to hit on girls before we even get off of the train!"

"James, you just have no lust for life! For the first time, we're on our own!"

"I don't think life is what you're lusting after," James muttered as he reluctantly followed his twelve-year-old friend down the corridor in pursuit of the fairer sex. Sirius was almost seven months older than him, and it seemed that Sirius's glands were bound and determined to make up for every second. James couldn't see the big deal in it all. He had other things on his mind.

His aunt had spent the past months filling him in on just about everything that she could remember about her days at Hogwarts. He knew that first years weren't allowed to have broomsticks, and that would be arguably the most worst thing about the whole thing. James had practically grown up on his Silver Arrow, learning everything anyone would teach him about flying, Quidditch and the like. He was already quite a good Chaser, at least according to his aunt, but the thought that he wouldn't be able to be on the House team until at least his second year, if then, was trying his patience just thinking about it. 

She had also had told him all about the houses themselves; how his mother was a Ravenclaw and his father a Gryffindor. Aunt Cathy had been a Hufflepuff, along with most of the family on his mother's side. She thought there might have been a Slytherin somewhere in the family tree, but she wasn't sure. 

So Sirius could pratter on about girls, but James was more than content to worry about what he knew was coming up. The single most important thing in his life up until now.

The Sorting.


End file.
